Mayor vs. city attorney, Round 2

The simmering feud between Mayor Bob Filner and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith erupted Wednesday when the mayor hijacked Goldsmith’s news conference and dressed him down for giving legal advice through the news media.

Filner accused the city attorney of “unethical and unprofessional conduct” after Goldsmith gave his legal analysis of the mayor’s four-point proposal to end a dispute with hoteliers over tourism marketing revenue. He then chastised Goldsmith for exceeding his role as legal adviser to the mayor and council by discussing the issue with the media.

“He did not advise me,” Filner said. “It would have been nice, Mr. Goldsmith, to have a memo. It would have been nice to have advice. I am your client. That’s privileged communication. You not only have been unprofessional but unethical in this press conference. And I resent it greatly that you’re giving your advice through the press.”

After Filner finished, Goldsmith took the podium again and said, “I hope in the future we’ll know about these issues and get consulted in advance but if I read them in the newspaper and they’re wrong I have to comment on them.”

Filner replied, “I have no obligation to inform you of any policy decisions I make. You have the obligation as my attorney to give me private and privileged communication. I do not have to advise you on my policy considerations, but you have the right, you have the obligation to defend me in any court action and to give me advice in a privileged fashion, not to announce your own policy on your own.”

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Filner, a Democrat, and Goldsmith, a Republican, are the only city officials elected citywide and a bitter feud has been growing between them since Filner took office in December. Filner hired his own legal adviser and doesn’t consult with Goldsmith, who supported City Councilman Carl DeMaio in last year’s mayoral race. Goldsmith complained last week that he finds out what Filner is doing through the media and hasn’t established a dialogue with him.

Goldsmith scheduled the afternoon news conference to address key legal points related to Filner’s desire to renegotiate a nearly 40-year deal with the hotelier-run Tourism Marketing District. The district relies on a 2 percent hotel room surcharge estimated to generate $30 million this year for marketing.

That money has been on hold since Jan. 1 because Filner refuses to sign the deal, which was approved by the City Council and hoteliers last year. Filner said he would like a new, shorter deal that requires hotels to provide better pay for hotel workers, more money for city coffers and indemnification for the city if it is deemed illegal in court.

Goldsmith said the current unsigned deal includes indemnification and that a living-wage requirement and contract length are policy decisions made by the council. He also said it would be illegal for the city to receive more money out of the deal because it is a fee that must be used to benefit the party being assessed: hotels. Goldsmith acknowledged in response to a reporter’s question that the city could cut a side deal with hoteliers to get more money, but he likened that to a tax increase.

Filner, who attended the University of San Diego’s second annual “Conference on Restoring Civility to Civic Dialogue” earlier Wednesday, showed up a few minutes after Goldsmith started and took a seat near the podium. After Goldsmith finished, Filner said the city attorney’s advice was “wrong and trivial.”

“Of course these are policy decisions that have to be enacted by the City Council,” he said. “I was engaged in a negotiation with the hotel owners to see if we could get a change in policy, which would of course have to be ratified by the City Council. You’re stating the obvious, which I don’t think needs to be stated.”

The news conference ended with Goldsmith saying, “I disagree with whatever he said. We used to have a city attorney who liked to be mayor. Now we have a mayor who wants to be city attorney.”

The reference was to former City Attorney Michael Aguirre, who viewed himself as the people’s attorney. He filed lawsuits without City Council approval and butted heads regularly with former Mayor Jerry Sanders. A similar dynamic between Filner and Goldsmith appears to be growing.

Under the city charter, the city attorney has three roles: provide legal advice to the city and its departments, including the mayor and council; prosecute and defend civil lawsuits; and prosecute criminal misdemeanors and infractions within city limits.

This isn’t the first time Filner has criticized Goldsmith in their short time in office together. In January, Filner told a pro-medicinal marijuana crowd that Goldsmith was “a little guy” that could be intimidated into stopping prosecution of pot dispensaries. Earlier this month, Filner reportedly made a joke about Goldsmith’s toupee at a function for downtown insiders.

In the Tourism Marketing District case, Filner has acknowledged he didn’t seek Goldsmith’s legal advice. Filner has been skeptical of the deal, calling it an illegal tax and saying the money generated should go toward the city’s public safety costs.

If the terms of the district are changed, tourism leaders and hoteliers say new governing documents would have to be drafted and another mail ballot election would have to be held so that hotel owners could vote on the financing mechanism.

All that would take considerable time, meaning it’s unlikely San Diego would be able to mount any kind of broad TV advertising campaign that it had planned for the summer season.

Hoteliers have said they’ll sue the city if Filner doesn’t sign the approved operating agreement, but Filner said it would be better for both sides — and the city’s tourism efforts — to reach a new agreement and avoid lengthy litigation.

Goldsmith hasn’t weighed in on whether Filner is legally required to sign the document because that matter is subject to a discussion in closed session Tuesday. If hoteliers sue, the City Attorney’s Office would represent Filner in the case.